What’s the best Aston Martin
ASTON MARTIN DB2/4
In some movies it is the car that is the star, not so in Alfred Hitchcock's classic, The Birds, although it came damn close. Aston Martin is world renowned for the excellence of their cars and is a favorite drive for James Bond, but in Hitchcock's movie it was Tippi Hendren who was behind the wheel of a shiny silver example of a DB2/4.
The British Aston Martin Company took their existing DB2 design and refined it, manufacturing the cars between 1953 and 1957 when the last of the mark's left the factory after a production run of 824. The refinements over the older version included a large wraparound windscreen, enlarged fenders, headlights that were in a better position than before and a 2+2 seating arrangement. Most novel of all though, was the fact that the DB2/4 was the world's first ever hatch back.
Up until this point in the early 1950's, all cars than a trunk and doors, the idea of a fifth door at the rear of the vehicle was radical. This was seized upon by the car industry and ever since with generation after generation of hot hatches' on the streets of the world benefiting from the foresight of the engineers at Aston Martin. Aston Martin buyers, who were more conservative in their tastes, could always order the DB2/4 as a drophead coupe with Bertone building just a handful of spider versions of the car.
The DB2/4 was powered by the tried and tested and much loved dual overhead cam straight-6 Lagonda engine as in the DB2; the engine had been designed by Walter Owen Bentley and was a 2.6 Litre (2580 cc/157 in), giving 125 hp. In mid-1954, an enlarged 2.9 Litre (2922 cc/178 in) VB6/J version was used, increasing the available power to 140 hp giving the design the extra thump than extended the top speed of the mark to 120 mph (193 km/h). Bentley's work on the engine had been forced by the purchase by Rolls Royce of his classic car company that bears his name. He wanted to go racing, but Rolls Royce decided to pursue other, more stately avenues at the end of World War Two.
When the car and the engine melded together it was like magic, with an entry into the 1950 Le Man's 24-hour race, the cars crossing the chequered flag first and second in class. Aston Martin had made a classic car and people with money wanted to share in the success.
Total production of the Aston Martin DB2/4 Mk1 was 565, which also saw 102 drophead coupes coming off the line. Three of this mark was sent to compete in the 1955 Monte Carlo Rally. These classic cars could make 118.5 miles per hour and 0-60 in 10.5 seconds, but they weren't cheap the cost in 1954 was 2621, more than five years wages for the average earner in 1950's Britain.
A Mk 2 version of the car followed in 1955, which enlarged the engine yet again, giving it even more poke and power. The large valve option engine produced 165 horse power, whilst other refinements included bubble type tail lights, fashionable at the time, more chrome and small tailfins, probably trying to appeal to the American market. A two-seat version of the car was offered but only 30 were manufactured out of the total 199 Mk 2 production run, which itself had been transferred to a new site at the Tickford Coachbuilding Works in Newport Pagnell.
Italian styling was applied to three DB2/4's when a trio of the cars was sent to Carrozzeria Touring in Italy to become Spider models. They would later assist Aston Martin with the design and production of the Superleggera design of the DB4.
